


Men and Monsters and the Gods That Create Them

by Zerrat



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Community: ff_land, Dark, F/M, Human Experimentation, Murder, POV Minor Character, Science
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-01
Updated: 2012-03-01
Packaged: 2017-10-31 22:59:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/349290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zerrat/pseuds/Zerrat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five experiments that Hojo initially believed to have failed, and the one that would go on to become his greatest success.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Men and Monsters and the Gods That Create Them

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 'five things' contest on the livejournal landcomm ff_land.

**i. Project Chaos**

 

The Turk had been in love with Lucrecia. The fact that this love was returned, distasteful as it was, would have been obvious to even the most catatonic of simpletons. Hojo had never counted himself among the directionless fools that usually wandered the Planet, and if the foolish woman was so intent on giving her heart to a man with as much intelligence as a foot soldier, then…

The Turk's suspicious eyes tracked his movements, analyzed his actions, reminding Hojo of a time when Grimoire had judged him, all those years ago. Grimoire had gotten precisely what had been coming to him, and Hojo was certain that Vincent would meet just as sticky an end.

At present, as the Jenova Project and mako-treatments began in earnest, Hojo had far more pressing matters to concern himself with. 

Of course, that had been before the man had stepped into Hojo's path on the wrong day. The relentless, probing questions regarding Lucrecia's son had been naught but enraging. 

For all his training as a Turk, Vincent was only a human, and like all humans, he never saw his end coming until he was staring at it down the barrel of a gun.

As Vincent had lain in a pool of coagulating blood, his eyes glazing over and his body cooling, Hojo had paused to wonder why such an insignificant man would think to question the merits of the Jenova Project. The thought was fleeting, and it was not long before he dismissed those questions entirely. 

The Jenova Project was certain to be a success, but while he awaited the birth of the Jenova specimen, he could entertain himself with the body Vincent Valentine had so graciously donated to the Science Department. 

The weeks passed, and as the event of the Jenova specimen's birth drew near, Hojo finally grew bored of his mako infusions, his blades, his monsters and his genetic splicing. Necrotic flesh was hardly entertaining, and there was little point in continuing his vengeful twisting of Lucrecia's would-be lover if the man would never awaken. 

Admitting that his ministrations had been a failure, he consoled himself with thoughts on Jenova's unique cellular structure, on the Project, the Planet… and on Lucrecia's agony when he finally revealed what had become of her precious Vincent Valentine. 

 

**ii. Jenova Project**

 

At some level, Hojo understood that the squalling little babe, clasped tightly in Gast's arms, would be his crowning achievement. He'd pushed such fallacious thoughts aside, knowing that this, _this,_ would simply be the beginning for him. Today, they'd used ingenuity of science to recreate a Cetra. Tomorrow… Hojo's eyes followed the babe.

Tomorrow would be a new day. President Shinra's half-witted dreams of a Promised Land were but a drop in the ocean, compared to the ambitions that Hojo had carefully cultivated in the dark corners of his mind. 

His little games with Grimoire's meddlesome son were nothing compared with what would be.

Heedless of the mother's demands to see the babe, Hojo pulled away from her grasping and needy hands and followed Gast. Lucrecia, beautiful as she was, had served her purpose and he no longer had need of her. There was still so much to be done. 

He forced himself to fall into step behind Gast, his mind already abuzz with procedures and tests and evaluations, all to see the extent of the power they'd forced into this subject –

There was a need to keep the subject quarantined for the initial week following its birth – Jenova's cells, when used on prior human subjects, had had some unfortunate side effects. The effects of the cells on a human, implanted while still developing, were unknown, and the Department had cautioned them to keep their distance. 

Fools that they were, they had no appreciation for the rigours of scientific endeavour. 

The third phase of the Jenova Project was given the green light by the President, and the tests began. 

At first Hojo been amazed by the highly advanced cognitive capacity the subject harboured, the incredible co-ordination, the level of intelligence within those eyes. Gast had delighted in the subject's progress, but something niggled at the back of Hojo's mind, a gut feeling that all had not gone as expected…

Those half-reasoned thoughts of failure soon turned to fact as he was forced to accede that perhaps, the Jenova Project had not been quite as successful as initial findings had indicated. 

Hojo ticked the failings off in his mind, as he sat across from the subject. The subject displayed little affinity for the Planet, little in the way of natural magic and none of the regenerative abilities displayed by the fossilized Jenova. 

The boy's eyes were stark and hollow as he awaited another of the jump-starting mako treatments. Hojo turned on his heel sharply, nodding for his assistants to begin.

No, the subject was not a Cetra. The Jenova Project had failed in its initial aim, and yet the departments and the President trumpeted this as a success! The thought embittered him, and he scarcely noticed when Lucrecia vanished from his life. 

 

**iii. Project G**

 

It was inevitable that such poor imitations would occur, but as Hojo observed the routine training exercises from beyond the one-way mirror, he had to admit that Hollander's attempt to equal to his genius was nothing short of insulting. 

Well. Hollander's failures did give Hojo a sense of deep and vicious satisfaction, but his clumsiness and his ham-fisted tactics rankled all the same. 

Project G had yielded naught but flawed copies of Sephiroth, and it had been a waste of the precious Jenova cells the department had so painstakingly cultivated. Given to an ineffectual hack such as Hollander, such poor results were only to be expected. 

The two G-Type SOLDIERs possessed none of the smooth grace of Hojo's prodigal creation, the soundness of his cellular structure, the way his cells seemed to resonate in the presence of other sample's of Jenova's cells…

Hojo paused, an idea worming inside his mind, entirely unbidden and almost alien.

It was moments like these that Hojo began to entertain the idea that perhaps the Jenova Project had not failed at its aim – more, that it had been a quiet success. This wasn't reflected in Sephiroth's vast military talent – no, Hojo reviled the President's desire to continue to fund his toy SOLDIERs – but in the way his cells reacted. 

While the Jenova Project had aimed to recreate the powers gifted unto the Cetra, Hojo began to wonder if Sephiroth and his cells were not the greatest scientific success of the century. 

Investigation into this odd cellular reaction was needed, before Hojo could test the quickly-forming hypotheses in his mind. 

Hojo would have years before he finally found his chance and his unwilling specimens. By then, he would have given his idea a name. 

Reunion Theory.

 

**iv. Project S**

 

After the event at Nibelheim's Reactor, Hojo had seized his chance. By then, he'd become truly certain of Jenova's ability to reform, to remorph, to continue to survive, to grow, in spite of how he'd dismembered the body. His need to prove his theory – truly, it was to be his greatest achievement – grew to encompass his whole being. 

_Recreate me Sephiroth,_ the President had asked him, when it seemed that Sephiroth had been lost. Never one to bow his head and ignore the call to further science, Hojo had seemingly acquiesced.

But his continuing tests beneath the abandoned Shinra Mansion were not to clone the man, per se, but the reunion effect that had been mirrored in his cells. It was that elusive hint of a higher calling, of seeing how the Jenova cells buried within a stupefied specimen clamoured for Reunion. 

His first subject had been a SOLDIER, in his other life. Full of life and defiance, he'd been injected with Jenova's cells and had been administered enough mako to bewilder and sicken, to weaken his mental defenses against the cells' call. It was not enough, and the specimen had been able to hold onto his identity and his free will. 

A failure. A waste of the precious Jenova cells. Hojo strove to amend his errors with the feverish desperation of a man consumed.

Time went on, and by the time his initial specimen had escaped his laboratory, Hojo had perfected his treatments, numbered his successes, and released them into the world, before returning to Midgar. His work done, he simply had to await the confirmation of his theory and the reawakening of his son.

He'd come too far not to see his Project to the end.

 

**v. Unnumbered**

 

To await his project's outcome in relative relaxation, Hojo had retired to Costa Del Sol. 

He'd not expected one of his many failures to turn up, but he'd taken much joy in taunting the clueless specimen, in hinting at his twisted origins and the connection with Sephiroth. The failure had lacked a number, a purpose.

However, after the appearance of the unnumbered specimen, Hojo had found himself unable to relax once more. The gnawing desire to see his projects to their end reawakened, and he'd rejoined ShinRa. 

Tracking the unsightly band of rebels was not difficult, and it was at the Northern Crater that he finally caught up. He'd delighted in telling the young man the extent of his experiments, in the brilliance of his Reunion Theory, in watching the sanity shatter in the mako-blue eyes. 

There was no validation to give to this unnumbered specimen, nor would there ever be. 

 

**vi. Unpredicted**

 

It appeared that fate had a sense of humour. That unnumbered grunt would prove to be one of his greatest successes, but not for the reasons Hojo may have have predicted.

As Cloud Strife marched on the Northern Crater for the final time, Hojo was slumped over the control panel, defeated and dying. With a few taps on the blood-soaked keys, Hojo let his duplicated consciousness leech out into the Worldwide Network, even as the Jenova cells he'd implanted in his body carried the last of his will to rejoin with his brilliant Sephiroth. 

Let his two greatest accomplishments do battle for the fate of the Planet.

One way or another, Hojo would see what lay beyond Meteorfall.


End file.
